President Trump tweeted on Thursday that the F.B.I.’s investigative steps in the Russia inquiry could prove to be “bigger than Watergate!”CreditDoug Mills/The New York Times

By Eileen Sullivan

May 17, 2018

WASHINGTON — President Trump asserted on Thursday that federal investigators attempted to infiltrate his 2016 campaign with a confidential informant — a scandalous overreach, he said, that would be “bigger than Watergate!”

Wow, word seems to be coming out that the Obama FBI “SPIED ON THE TRUMP CAMPAIGN WITH AN EMBEDDED INFORMANT.” Andrew McCarthy says, “There’s probably no doubt that they had at least one confidential informant in the campaign.” If so, this is bigger than Watergate!

In some sense, many analysts have said, he is right: Efforts by a hostile foreign power to influence an American presidential election — with or without the assistance or knowledge of the winning candidate — may well be a scandal “bigger than Watergate!”

The F.B.I. and a team of special prosecutors are investigating whether any of Mr. Trump’s associates were coordinating with Russia to help Mr. Trump defeat his Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton. And, since the appointment of the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, the investigation has expanded to include inquiries into whether Mr. Trump has attempted to obstruct justice to bring an end to what he regularly calls a witch hunt.

Thursday is the first anniversary of Mr. Mueller’s appointment. Since then, Mr. Trump has considered firing Mr. Mueller, Attorney General Jeff Sessions, and the deputy attorney general, Rod J. Rosenstein — drawing parallels to the Watergate investigation more than four decades earlier, when Richard M. Nixon, ordered his attorney general and deputy attorney general to fire the special prosecutor investigating abuses in the 1972 presidential election. Both Justice Department officials resigned rather than carrying out the order.

Mr. Trump marked the Mueller anniversary with a series of Twitter posts on Thursday morning, reminding his 52 million followers his belief that the investigation is a witch hunt.

The president also praised his administration, calling it “the most successful first 17 month Administration in U.S. history — by far!”

In the first year of Mr. Mueller’s investigation, the special counsel’s team has brought dozens of criminal charges against former associates of Mr. Trump as well as Russians and Russian companies involved in the influence campaign.

In one of his tweets, Mr. Trump also mentioned the use of a confidential informant. At least one government informant met several times with two of Mr. Trump’s former campaign aides, officials have said.